Pekin girls outlast Wapello in south division contest

PACKWOOD ? The Pekin girls used a mixture of depth and conditioning to wear down Wapello en route to a 65-40 win Tuesday in Packwood.

?We were able to substitute a little bit and that made quite a difference,? said Pekin head coach Davis Eidahl. ?I think we just wore them down and that?s what we?ve been working on this year.?

?During Christmas break we tried working hard on rebounding, man defense and conditioning,? Eidahl explained. ?It paid off as we overcame a slow first quarter, then stepped it up with good man defense.?

Five Panthers scored at least eight points to keep Pekin (8-2, 7-2 SEISC north) alive in the race for the conference title.

Emily Ellis led the charge with 16 points followed by Jessica Horras with 13 points, Brandy Millikin with 10, and Cheyann Lankford and Leslie Stone had eight points each.

Ellis kicked off 2012 on a positive note for the Panthers with a 3-pointer ? the team?s only shot from beyond the arc in the game ? to open the contest up 3-0.

Pekin fell behind early, however, trailing 6-3 after the first two minutes due to poor shot selection and turnovers.

?We were trying a new offense, and [Wapello] scored basically on our turnovers,? Eidahl said. ?When we come down and set up our defense, they wouldn?t score, but they made 7 or 8 baskets just on our bad passes.?

The Panthers played from behind for much of the quarter as Wapello stretched its lead out to 16-12 with under two minutes to play in the first period.

Following one made free throw by both teams, Ellis scored the final four points of the period to knot the game up at 17-all.

Jessica Horras opened up the second quarter with a 2-pointer to give Pekin its first lead in minutes, and from there the Panthers scored nine straight points to take a 26-17 lead.

The Indians answered back to whittle the deficit to 28-21, but shots by Samantha Wright and Millikin kept the score in double-digit range as Pekin carried a 32-24 lead into halftime.

In the second half, the Panthers? man defense forced Wapello into committing several turnovers along with easy buckets for the home team. The Panthers held the Indians to five points in the third quarter and 11 points in the fourth.

Pekin outscored the Indians 33-16 in the second half.

Overall, nine girls scored for the Panthers. Paige Jensen had four points, and Wright, Monica Cooley and McKenna Gambell scored two points each to round out the scoring. Millikin had a team-high seven rebounds ? including four offensive ? and Cooley also had four offensive boards. Stone recorded two steals and Horras had one block.

?The first five or six games all we did was play six girls. We said we have to start rotating some girls so they can come in and score,? said Eidahl. ?That?s what we?ve been working on, trying to get scoring from not just the two guards but from some of the other girls.?

The Panthers will face Lone Tree at home Friday.

PEKIN ? Ellis 16, Horras 13, Millikin 10, Lankford 8, Stone 8, Jensen 4, Wright 2, Cooley 2, Gambell 2, Total 65

3-point goals ? Ellis 1. Rebounds ? Millikin 7, Cooley 4. Assists ? Wright 1, Lankford 1, Horras. Steals ? Stone 2. Block ? Horras 1.